HPV Infection Among Teen Girls Drops Since Vaccine Program Started

human papillomavirus vaccine cervical cancer head and neck cancer Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Dr. Lauri Markowitz HPV Vaccination Program

By Junrell , Parent Herald Feb 23, 05:30 am

A recent study shows that the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine is creating a big impact in the United States. The number of teen girls who are infected by the cancer-causing HPV has plummeted by 64 percent.

The researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found out that the number of young women infected with HPV in the US has been declining since the implementation of the vaccination program in 2006, CNN reported. Among girls with ages 14 to 19 years old, the infection rates with the four types of HPV included in the 4vHPV vaccine have dropped from 11.5 percent to 4.3 percent.

"We are continuing to see decreases in the HPV types that are targeted by the vaccine," Dr. Lauri Markowitz, lead author of the study and medical epidemiologist at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told CBS News. She added that the declines will lead to reductions in diseases caused by HPV like cervical cancer, and head and neck cancer.

According to Markowitz, the reductions in HPV-related diseases could be seen in the next decades because the development of cancer takes years. "We have seen declines in genital warts [caused by HPV] already. The next thing we expect to see is a decline in pre-cancers, then later on declines in cancer."

The study, which was published in the journal Pediatrics, also revealed that the rates of infection in women with ages 20 to 24 years old have slightly dropped from 18.5 percent to 12.1 percent. On the other hand, the infection rates among women with ages 25 to 29 and 30 to 34 remained the same.

Despite the encouraging findings, the researchers also found out that the number of teens who received the recommended three doses of the vaccine is too few. Only 22 percent of boys and 42 percent of girls between the ages of 13 and 17 in America have been vaccinated.

Markowitz said that greater declines in HPV-related diseases could be expected if the vaccination program has a greater coverage. "A very large percentage of cervical cancers could be prevented by the vaccine."